Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE

International Conference on Robotics & Automation

Detroit, Michigan May 1999

Development & Application of Wall-Climbing Robots

Wang Yan, Liu Shuliang, Xu Dianguo, Zhao Yanzheng, Shao Hao & Gao Xueshan
Robot Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology
P.R.China , 150001

Abstract
The potential is enormous for wall-climbing robots which can
work in extremely hazardous environments, however, with the 2. Wall-climbing robot with one suction cup
limits of many factors, the application is rather limited. Our together with its application
work is to broaden the practical application by making
specialized robots. In this paper, we introduce wall-climbing 2.1 Mechanism and control of the robot
robots of two different absorption schemes we exploited: one
with single suction cup and the other with permanent magnetic Because of its simple structure, high moving speed, the
crawlers. The former adopts an omnidirectional vehicle and wall-climbing robot with single suction cup has been
can perform remote-control inspection of nuclear storage tanks, applied in many areas, Fig. 1 shows the structure diagram
moreover, it is further developed for cleaning of high-rise of the robot. It mainly consists of four parts: driving
buildings of both ceramic tile and glass surfaces. The latter mechanism, vacuum pump, discharge regulating valve,
consists of two types of robot, one is for maintenance sucking and sealing mechanism. When the air amount
automation of storage tanks in petrochemical enterprises which absorbed in from the gap between the sealing and the
can do operations of sand-blasting, spray-painting and surface is equal to that of air drawn from the cup by the
inspection; and the other is expected for monitoring boiler vacuum pump, the negative pressure in the suction cup
water wall tubing. will be built and thus keep the robot sucking on the wall
Keywords: wall-climbing robot, magnetic crawler, reliably. The sucking and sealing mechanism has a big
remote control influence on the time how long the robot can form the
negative pressure expected and the extent how much the
robot can adopt surfaces of concave and coivex maybe.
1. Introduction Based on many tests, we developed a simple but effective
method-air cushion/ regulating spring collaboration [SI.
With the development of science and technology, there
are increasing demands for better working conditions and
higher living quality. The cleaning of high-rise driving mhaniSm
buildings, the inspection and maintenance of storage
tanks in nuclear power plants and petrochemical
enterprises etc.- all these practical problems have an
immediate need of automation. Unique of its special
characteristics, wall-climbing robot has provoked high
attention world widely ever since it was born in 1960’s.
By now, a number of wall climbing robots have been
exploited and some are in present use [1][2][4][5][11].

However, we have to notice that the application of wall-

climbing robots is still limited; apart from a few
successful industrialized products, most are only
prototypes for their speed, cost and reliability. For this, in
the last decade, we mainly focus our attention on the
application of the robots by simplifying their structure,
making them specialized for each simple task and
improving auxiliary equipment to convenient operation. Fig.I The Structure Diagram of the Robot
In the following, we’ll discuss in detail about the robots
With an adjusting valve on the cushion, the air amount in
we developed together with the applications. it can be adjusted and thus enables the robot to fit in with
surfaces of different curvature. The regulating spring on

0-7803-5180-0-5/99 $10.00 0 1999 IEEE 1207

one hand, provides positive pressure for sealing and on
the other hand, also helps to improve the adaptability of
the robot to surfaces. As for driving-mechanism, an
omnidirectional vehicle is made comprising four
orientation wheels[ 141. Compared with common wheels,
around these wheels, there are several inclined running
pulleys whose design values (dimensions, number, etc.)
have an inner connection with the parameter of the entire
wheels. With this kind of omnidirectional vehicle, the
robot can move in any direction of two-dimensional
space in constant attitude only by different collaborations
of direction and velocity of the wheels.
The control system consists of three parts: the control
of negative pressure, omnidirectional vehicle and attitude
close loop system. To maintain a certain negative
pressure in the suction cup is critical, here principle of
PWM ( Pulse-Width-Modulation ) is used and a negative
pressure sensor is taken to form close loop control, see
Fig.2. Fig.3 shows the response curve of negative
pressure[7].
Negative pressure sensor
Fig.2 Negative pressure close loop control system
Fig.3 The response curve of negative pressure
In controlling the omnidirectional vehicle, first the
control equation is set up, and then by programming and
controlling the velocity and direction of its separate
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wheels, the robot can achieve omnidirectional
movements. Also, an inclinometer sensor is adopted to
form the attitude close loop control system and then the
robot can move in straight line, which is most helpful in
certain applications such as welding seam inspection of
nuclear storage tanks.
Main technical indexes are showed as follows:
0 Maximum travelling speed: 8m/min
0 Size of outline: 290 X 260 X 230mm3
0 Maximum payload: lOkg
0 Weight of robot: 30kg
2.2 Application of the robot
1. Inspection of nuclear storage tanks
Storage tanks in nuclear engineering need to be inspected
at intervals for fear of leakage. As the working
conditions are most dangerous, wall-climbing robot is
recommended. Besides the robot, the whole remote-
control-inspect system includes carrier loader,
manipulator, safety system, remote control board and
flaw detector. First, the carrier loader transports the robot
to destination and then the manipulator is responsible for
fetching the robot on and off the tanks. To simplify the
structure, the manipulator is designed of folding and
articulating type, see Fig. 4, with four necessary
degrees of freedom and its final performer takes a
bifurcation form[l3]. Fig.5 shows the robot operating on
a tank.
Robot
i&d
Manipulator
Fig.4 Diagrammatic sketch of manipulator
The control system is a two-level computer configuration,
with a master host in the remote control board and a
slave computer on the carrier loader. By means of optical
cable, the master host can make serial communication
with the slave computer, and the operator can thus
control real-time the whole processing of inspection by
visual system, keyboard and control levers in the remote
control board. The diagram of the control system is
shown in Fig.6[3].

2. Cleaning walls

Up to now, the cleaning of most high buildings is manual

work with the aid of cranes, both dangerous and time-
consuming. Considering a certain percentage of walls are
smooth, without apparent rough and uneven in surface,
which are most feasible to be cleaned by the wall-
climbing robot, we have developed a whole cleaning
system including a hoist mounted on top of buildings,
brush, carrier loader, cleaning machine of high pressure,
control box and so on.

To simplify the structure of the robot, two wheels Fig.5Robot inspecting on a tank
mechanism is adopted in place of the omnidirectional
vehicle, which improves the flexibility of the robot and
its maximum velocity also increases to 12m/min. As of respectively, and one strict support for holding the
suction absorption, the payload is limited, the hoist can robot[lO].
on one hand, protect the robot in danger and on the other
hand, share the weight of water hoses and control cables In controlling the robot, wireless remote' control is
to enable the robot work high above the ground. adopted. The control system consists of three parts:
Cleaning brushes are designed according to the work master circuit, also control box, including data
surface. For ceramic tile surface, a rolling bristle brush is transmitheceive circuit, keyboard and LCD, and two
specially designed and on it there fix hoses to provide slavery circuits, one on the robot, controlling the
cleaning agent and water when needed. For surface of movement and cleaning operation of the robot, and the
glass, however, a type of drawing strickle is chosen. To other on the hoist carrying out the liftldrop of the cable,
convenient the operation, a carrier loader is made, with see Fig.7.
two rollers for putting hoses and cables in order

Carrier Loader

Manipulator
Photo- IPhoto-I
c
I P U
t? lectric electric Visual system

o*
VA ,
Trans- STD
4 ) - Flaw detector
former
ata Compilation Optical ~

/
\.
\.
.' I Robot
\. /' ' +
\ /'
Master Computer System '' RS232C
........................... .................................................................................

Fig. 6 The block diagram ofthe control system

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 ..................................................................................................................................................
3.1 Wall-climbing robot for spray painting and
i
TransmitReceiver Keyboard sand blasting
t Unite
This is a project in which we, Robot Research Institute,
collaborate with a petrochemical enterprise, aiming at
maintenance automation of a great many oil tanks with
the diameter of 10-20 meters and 15-25 meters high.
. - DCMntnrs_li These tanks are sand blasted for antirust, spray painted
for anticorrosion at intervals with the aid of scaffolds,
Unite both dangerous and inefficient.

Considering that the operation of sand blasting and

Robot spray painting requires the robot to bear a large load of
.................................................................................................................................................
no less than 30kg, magnetic crawlers are designed, see
Fig.9. Each crawler comprises a chain and some
magnetic sticking units evenly arranged, with the size
6 TransmitReceiver
of 52X55X28mm3, weight of 0.35kg and absorption
Unite
force of 18kg. While working, there are always a
Safety Mechanism certain number of sticking units in good contact with
: ................................................................................................................................................ 2
the surface which enables the robot stay reliably on it.
Also, an anti-topple mechanism is designed to ensure
Fig. 7 Block diagram of the control system the robot move freely on a surface of 5-10mm
fluctuation. Right of the robot is a four-level
The whole cleaning system has proved to be reliable, and mechanism for painting and a gear transmission
only 2-3 people are needed to run the operation. Fig.8 mechanism is used to transform the rotate of the chain
shows the robot cleaning on a ceramic tile wall. wheel into the swing of the gun level[l2].

Fig.9 Structure block of the robot

The characteristics of the robot are as follows:

Fig.8 Robot on cleaning walls 0 As for painting operation, the working condition is
inflammable, not suitable for DC motors, here
permanent magnetic AC servo motors are used and
3. Wall-climbing robot with magnetic covered with flameproof shells. The whole system has
absorption passed specialized flameproof tests.
0 Permanent magnet with high performance is

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adopted, with standard ingredient: Nd,5Fe77BsSince the
magnet is fragile and easy to cause pockmark and craze,
sealing-in is necessary. With vulcanized rubber on its
surface, the friction coefficient between the sticking unit
and the surface increases and the movement of the robot
is steadier. However, the absorption force decreases
meanwhile and so, the thickness of the rubber must be
controlled.
0 With permanent magnetic absorption, though the robot
is safer and more reliable, it also has a problem: to get
the robot on/off tanks is most difficult. Here, a special
carrier with a leading declivity has been made to solve
the problem easily.
0 The robot as a carrier, can take accessories for several
operations:
( 1 ) The complete range of equipment for sand blasting
includes air pump, sand storage tanks, rubber pipes of
high pressure etc. The air pressure is about 0.6-0.8Mpa,
a serious test of the anti-topple and load-bearing capacity Fig. 10 Robot painting on spot
of the robot. To begin work, first mount the rack
3.2 Wall-climbing robot for maintenance of
specially designed on the top of the robot; then fix the
boiler water wall tubing
pipe connecting the storage tank on the rack, the angel of
-
inclination between the pipe and the wall is 15" 75' ;
The fireside of boiler tubing in a fossil-fueled boiler is,
and then press the control button on the control box to
at best, an extremely harsh environment. Fireside
start the air pump and meanwhile, move the robot up and
corrosion accompanied with ash, slag-bonding and so
down to run the operation.
on, has been always forming a hidden danger for the
safe operation of calandric boilers, so it must be cleaned
(2) For different work load, two types of mechanism for
and monitored regularly. The typical approach is to
painting are designed. One is pendulous device, see Fig.9,
vacuum-blast the fireside surface to remove ash, for
the other is that two guns stand side by side. Before
hard slag-bonding, however, can only be removed using
operation, the distance between the guns and the wall
special tools such as scraper or steel brush. Considering
together with the relative distance between the two guns
most water wall tubing are of 60-100 meters high,
should be adjusted and fixed. Then during the work
much operation has to be taken with the aid of cranes
process, the guns will stay motionless. With the robot
and scaffolds.
moving in constant velocity, both the quality and
efficiency of painting can be assured. Fig.10 shows the
In 1997, we developed a wall-climbing 'robot with
robot painting on spot.
magnetic crawlers for cleaning and inspection of water
wall tubing, Fig. 1 1 is the prototype[9].
(3) The robot can also take a pachometer for lacquer coat
Its characteristic follows:
thickness measurement of tanks[6].
0 The entrance of boilers is limited ( with diameter
0 In controlling the robot, an inclinometer sensor is
about 400mm ), which requests the robot to be compact;
adopted to form the attitude close loop system. Also, for
and performing operations of cleaning and removing
standard tanks, the operation can be automatically
slag-bonding also requests the robot to bear a
achieved by setting values including the operation
payload no less than 30kg, so the robot is designed of
velocity, the height, radium of the tank etc.
crawler type, with the whole dimensions: 350 X 600 X
130mm'.
By now, the robot has been tested many times on spot.
0 To raise absorption force, the magnetic sticking
Most quality indexes are satisfactory, among them, the
units are designed of circle, approximately tallying with
precision for inspection is less than 3%, the velocity of
the contours of tubes. The payload of the robot exceeds
blasting and painting is 1.4-2.3m2/min. It is expected to
40kg.
save work force by about 60%, and cut down expenses 0 Ash and slag-bonding will not only decrease
by 30%.

121 1
 absorption force but damage the transmission
mechanism. To solve this problem, both a sealing cover
and a gas circuit are designed to prevent them from the
inner of the robot.
0 On the top of the robot, there fix a steel brush and
iron hammers. By chain transmission, the rocker
mechanism leads the brush in reciprocating motion for
cleaning. Also, a DC motor drives a ratchet
arrangement and then makes iron hammers beating the
tubes discontinuously to remove hard slag-bonding.
What’s more, the robot can perform thickness
inspection with a five-channel flaw detector. In sections
of excessive thin, it can give an alarm and make a paint
marking for subsequent maintenance.
0 In controlling the robot, we choose S7-200 PLC,
which proved to be reliable.
Fig.11 Robot working on water wall tubing
4. Conclusion
Considering the severity of so many environmental
conditions that have a critical need for automation, the
exploitation of wall-climbing robots has broad prospect
undoubtedly. During the past, we have been working on
it and have made some progress, especially, the robot for
cleaning walls is now being used for testing by several
cleaning corporations, and the results are satisfactory.
However, to make wall-climbing robots a popular
replacement of manual work, an indispensable
prerequisite is the high reliability and then high
efficiency and affordable prices of the robot, which
destined it to be a long run of improvement and
development.
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